


Have Her Braid Blue Yarn

by Broba



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Pony Play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-22
Updated: 2012-02-22
Packaged: 2017-10-31 14:38:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/345209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broba/pseuds/Broba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So I was talking to my very good chum Ren, and she asked me to do her a story- and how can I say no to a friend? She pointe dout that, in a manner of speaking Rose and Equius have a certain overlap of interests that would be interesting to examine, and Ren was right! Good Ren!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Have Her Braid Blue Yarn

Equius had been one of the first trolls to acquire a drivers' license, he had the mental discipline and knack with machinery to master the automobile easily. For this reason he had been ruthlessly press ganged by the others as a taxi-driver whenever anyone felt like a ride. In the event he didn't mind, he liked to drive. The sensation of speed and motion, and the hypnotic passage of the landscape soothed him considerably.  
  
Of all the trolls, he would never deny Nepeta a ride anywhere she pleased, and she enjoyed long trips outside the city into the countryside. Rose had come along for the peace and quiet, and as something of a chaperone. Equius still felt that it was inappropriate to wander too far without a human present to translate the odd cultural nuance that still tripped them all up.  
  
They had enjoyed a picnic of sandwiches and cake, and as they made their way home the sun began to set in brilliant bursts of gold flickering between the trees swishing past. The wind ruffled up the tops of the grasses in the wide fields by the road. Suddenly something caught Equius' gaze, and without a word he pulled the car to a halt by the road, stepping out. Nepeta looked up curiously and Rose frowned, Equius was just staring mutely into the distance.  
"What is it?" Rose got out and followed his gaze.  
"Look."  
  
In the distance but moving closer, a group of three horses was running through a field. They did not run to anywhere or from any place but only for the sheer exultant joy of it, expressed through their undulating bodies in the way that only horses truly can. Nepeta crawled over the back seat to the window and pressed her nose up against it, watching with a curious meow. Rose looked from the horses to Equius and back again. He was rigid and unemotional, but he turned to watch them unerringly and it was clear from his stance that he would not be going anywhere until he was ready.  
"Where did they come from?" He mused.  
"I don't know, I think there's a stable around here."  
"What is that?"  
"A stable? It's like a hive for horses. Humans look after them, feed them, ride them around, that sort of thing."  
"Ride them?"  
"Mm," Rose nodded, "there has been an almost symbiotic relationship between horse and mankind of thousands of years, before we had modern forms of transport." She patted the roof of the car to demonstrate.  
"Tell me more," he said flatly.  
"There was a time when armies of horsemen clashed on the great planes, whole cultures have developed around horse riding. The horse is a potent symbol for humans."  
"Symbol of what?"  
"Pride, strength," she sighed and watched a piebald colt dance around his fellows, nickering and throwing his mane, "beauty."  
"Yes," said Equius.  
  
When they reached Rose's house Nepeta was exhausted, and Mrs Lalonde insisted that they stay over, as she wouldn't see the dear girl dragged around when she needed a rest and they had so much room in the house. Rose seethed silently, she knew that what her mom really meant was to say that it was about time Rose brought some friends home. She resolved to find some way to get her mom back for that little barb later.  
  
Equius carried Nepeta easily in his arms, she snuggled against the angular hollow of his clavicle and purred in her sleep. Rose led the way to a spare room where he laid her in bed and tucked a blanket around her. They both stood there for a moment while Nepeta slept, and Rose smiled at him. Equius was always so stern and even cold, but when she saw the way he looked after Nepeta so tenderly she thought there was a depth to him that wasn't immediately obvious. Rose took his arm and raised a finger to her lips, they departed silently and left Nepeta to sleep.  
  
As they walked away down the corridor they passed the door to Rose's room and she pulled off her scarf, slipping in to put it away. Equius turned and caught sight of something through the crack of open door. Without a word he walked into her room, eliciting a soft sound of surprise from Rose. One entire wall was given over to posters and imagery of ponies, and Equius was staring transfixed. Ponies running, posing, leaping, on display. Ponies with riders and in the wild, elaborate dressage and ribbons. Rose smiled, and indicated some of her favourite specimens.  
"I've always had, I suppose it is a bit of a thing about ponies. It's silly really, a big cliché among young female humans."  
"You enjoy them, it is good. They are exquisite beasts."  
"I know! I don't ever get a chance to talk about it though. You can imagine, Jade loves all animals of course but it's not the same."  
"She doesn't appreciate," he tilted his head on one side, staring, "the style."  
"Yes! That's it exactly."  
"I would like to know more, Rose. I would like it very much if you would explain."  
  
Rose invited him to sit down, and she explained. She showed him showjumping and dressage and equestrian competitions, and Equius became more and more intrigued as she went over the ways in which horses were measured and judged, he seemed to become more and more excited by the concept of a hierarchy of horses, and she was sure he spent a little too much time staring at an image of saddlery tack she showed him. She actually had to fetch him a towel. When she returned with her towel he was just sitting upright on her chair, he looked amusingly oversized in it and from behind she could clearly see rivulets of perspiration over his squared blunt shoulders and powerful neck. When she concentrated, she could actually hear him breathing. He would inhale somewhat sharply, and let his breath out with the slightest hiss deep in his throat, she had never noticed that about him. She was feeling comfortable around him, and in a sudden and impulsive act she ran the towel over his shoulder and across the back of his neck. She felt him tense up, his muscles flexed and shifted roughly under her fingertips.  
"What are you doing? You don't have to do that."  
"It's all right."  
"I am not sure that it is right for you to do that."  
She was still stroking him with the towel, rubbing at his skin idly. She paused for a moment, and an idea came to her out of nowhere. She clucked her tongue softly at him, and rubbed his neck down with firm circular motions.  
  
To her surprise he didn't say anything, he just tilted his head back a little, and she brushed the towel over his throat and jaw. He seemed a little nervous, she could see his fingers shaking slightly, so she make the clucking sound with her tongue again and continued, with firm even strokes to show him that she was confident and comfortable in a controlling position. Equius seemed to pick up on her feeling and relaxed in turn. She wasn't sure, but she thought he closed his eyes behind his opaque shades.  
  
Rose had always wanted to experience this feeling, of looking after a powerful steed, taming the fierce muscularity of a horse with the caring touch of her fingertips. She told herself she was being a silly foolish girl and that Equius was just politely indulging her, but that didn't make it feel any less good. She stroked her fingers through his hair, it was coarse and wiry exactly as she imagined the wild mane of the piebald she had watched in the afternoon would feel. She let out a sigh.  
"Equius, I want to try something."  
He just made a guttural grunt of a reply.  
  
She had a box containing pieces of cloth, ribbon, yarn, all her craft materials. She took a length of thick blue yarn- she felt that blue was the only colour for Equius- and started combing her fingers through his hair. She had never braided a mane, but she had seen it done and had researched every aspect of proper equestrian dressage intently. She began to work with the yarn, gathering up his hair and binding it in a tight braid along with the blue yarn, which she used to gather and knot the braid to produce the characteristic round projections of the classic equestrian look in a line from his crown down the back of his neck. Whatever Equius thought of this treatment he said nothing, though he spoke in his own way. She could tell from his breathing when he was calm, and she knew when she had tugged on a hair by the tension of his muscle. She stroked a hand over his corded neck and felt him relax under her in an expression of trust. She prepared him to her satisfaction and he stood, looming over her. Silent, staring away ahead of him, thinking only the thoughts that led wild horses to canter and dance about each other in the long grasses but he was calm and content to stand before his girl, pleased in the pleasure he saw reflected in her eyes when she looked at him pridefully.  
  
Rose ran a fingertip across his chest, feeling out the muscle bunched there. She knew that if she threw herself across his shoulders and straddled his neck he could carry her with ease, farther and faster then she could ever go on her own. He could carry her anywhere she told him to go.  
"You're beautiful," she whispered, "and so strong."


End file.
